Holy Rosary church accident treated as such by Woodland police

The accident which left the statuary on the north side of Holy Rosary Catholic Church less than glorious last month will be treated as a traffic accident, according to officials.

Woodland police are still investigating why Steven Lachappelle, 25, drove his mid-90s Ford SUV into the north side of the church building on Dec. 19. Woodland Police Sgt. Brett Hancock confirmed the crash will be treated as a simple, single-vehicle accident and not a DUI, vandalism or hit-and-run.

"It appears that he was speeding," Hancock said. "He failed to negotiate that intersection basically. They're not sure if he fell asleep, they're not sure about anything. They're not even sure if the light was red or green."

According to police, Lachappelle was traveling southbound on Walnut around 6:30 p.m., when he came to the intersection of Walnut and Court streets.

He didn't make the turn and he didn't go straight, said Hancock, but Lachappelle was injured to the extent that firefighters had to extricate him from the vehicle and was life-flighted by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center.

While the reason is still unclear, Lachappelle left the roadway, went up over the sidewalk, barely missed a traffic pole and hit the north side of the church that borders Court Street.

The Ford Explorer just barely missed hitting the statuary that shows Jesus on the cross, Mary kneeling before Jesus and St. John standing to the left of Mary and Jesus. It did strike a water line, causing steady stream of water to run out and onto the ground. Holy Rosary Catholic Church was without water for four days while the water line was repaired.